from the state. The monarchical pantheon, too, such as
that of Homer and of the Eddas, is an indication, not of the genius
of a religion, but of its having reached the systematising stage, and
of the political ideas according to which the system is drawn up. The
Aryan religions, it is true, arrange their gods when the time comes
to do so, after the pattern of an Aryan patriarchal establishment,
the father at the head, his sons and daughters near him, the servants
in attendance, the unorganised host of spirits, nymphs and elves,
outside. But to know the original character of the religion it is
less important to ask how the pantheon is arranged, than what gods
are worshipped, and how they are related to man. And the point which
stands out clearly is that while Semitic religion is purely tribal
and local, there is an element in Aryan religion which naturally
transcends these limits. On Semitic ground the body with whom the god
transacts is the tribe, the link is that of blood which connects all
the members of the tribe with their divine head or ancestor. In Aryan
religion also blood counts for much. The family altar is the seat of
worship, and he who has been cast out of his own family cannot
worship anywhere. The family gods are most thought of, no doubt, and
exercise immense power in the ways we have mentioned. But the worship
of which blood is the tie is not to the Aryan, as to the Semite, the
whole of religion. There are beings aloft as well as beings on the
earth and under the earth, and the worship of these beings is wider
than the family. The family may address Heaven by a special private
name, or at a particular spot, but Heaven itself was above all these
titles and places. The spirits of the household made, as all the
Semitic gods do, for separation, but the gods above made for union,
and as any community grew, the upper gods, who were worshipped by all
its members alike, became more lofty and more important. Thus we may
agree with Mr. Gomme when he speaks (_Ethnology of Folklore_, p. 68)
of the emancipation of the Aryans from the principle of local
worship, and says that the rise of the conception of gods who could
and did accompany the tribes wheresoever they travelled, was "the
greatest triumph of the Aryan race."

Farther than this it may be dangerous to go in a field so full of
uncertainty. In all Aryan worships there are sacrifices of various
kinds and degrees of importance. The horse sacrifice appears in